


Mi Princesa

by mggislife2789



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Children, F/M, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-28
Updated: 2018-01-28
Packaged: 2019-03-10 17:08:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,526
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13506009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mggislife2789/pseuds/mggislife2789
Summary: Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters or their original stories. This is only for fun. It's where my brain goes after the credits roll. No copyright intended. Better safe than sorry. ;)





	Mi Princesa

“How can I help you?” 

There was a young girl staring at him dumbstruck - as in, saying absolutely nothing at all. 

She looked familiar, but she was a young teenager at the oldest. Where would he know her from. Luke decided to repeat himself, putting on his best smile and most patient tone of voice. “Hi, is there something I can help you with?”

The young girl bit her lip to keep it from quivering. “M-My name is Y/N. I-I-I’m your d-daughter.”

His mouth dropped open. “W-what? Look, I’m sure you might think that-”

“My mom’s name is Gabriella Mittal. You met a couple years after college.”

Luke gasped and clutched his hand to his mouth. Gabriella was one of the only women he’d ever loved. They dated for nearly a year and then she dropped off the face of the earth and he never heard from her again. “Your mother is Gabriella?”

The young girl nodded again. “Yes. We had a big fight after she told me she kept me from you…I thought you walked out.”

Why would she do that? Why would the woman he loved, who claimed to love him, keep him from his child? There was a teenager in front of him. His. And he didn’t know her. “I would never have walked out…I-I didn’t know you existed.”

Y/N started to cry, so Luke invited her in and gave her a glass of water. “You said your name was Y/N?”

“Yes,” she said as she sniffled. 

“That’s a beautiful name.”

“I’m sorry I just came here without a call or anything, but as soon as Mom told me your name and where you worked, I…had to.”

Where the hell was he supposed to start? He could barely breathe. There was a person, a whole complete person standing in front of him, and she shared his DNA. “Can you answer a question for me?” he asked. 

“Sure.” 

It would further prove in his mind that this girl was telling the truth if she said the right answer.

“What did I used to call Gabriella?”

“Mi cielito,” she said softly, the corner of her lip turning up into a smile at the term of endearment. My little sky - my heaven.

Tears stung at the inner corners of his eyes. “Why would she keep you from me? I-I-I don’t understand.” He shook the anger out of his system and focused on the girl in front of him. “That’s not important right now. Will you…tell me about yourself? Where do you go to school? What’s your favorite color? Favorite movie? Favorite food? God…I-”

Luke couldn’t help but start crying again; he didn’t know his own daughter! When she reached over and placed her hand on his, he felt a warmth spread through him. “I go to Washington Polytechnic Academy. It’s a college prep school. My favorite color is blue. Movie changes a lot, but right now it would have to be the new Disney movie, Moana. And favorite food, that was and will always be Murgh Malaiwala. Mom has a recipe from-”

“Her mother…your grandma.”

Y/N nodded. 

For nearly two hours, Luke sat stunned in the middle of his living room across from his daughter, getting to know anything and everything he could about her. “What are you going to do?” She asked. “I mean, are you going to talk to Mom?”

Luke huffed. “I’d say so. Can I bring you to your grandmother’s place? So I can speak to your mother alone.”

“Yea, sure,” she said, pulling out her phone. “But can we…exchange numbers? I-I really wanna get to know my dad.”

“Of course.” With a smile, he programmed his number into her phone and sent her a little waving emoji.

She snorted. “That’s lame.” All of a sudden her face went from smiling to solemn again. “C-Can I call you dad? I mean I know you don’t know me but-”

“Of course you can,” he replied. “I’m going to get tot know you. I promise. Can I call you mi princesa? As for being lame, isn’t that a father’s job?” He was a father. If he hadn’t just pinched himself, he would’ve sworn he’d astral projected. 

That got her to laugh again. “I’d love that. And I guess you’re right.”

Within the hour, Luke had dropped Y/N off at her grandmother’s house and gotten Gabriella’s address from her. As he was about to walk out the door when Gabriella’s mother grabbed his arm. “I know what she did was horrible to you, and I didn’t agree with her choice then or now, but…she did it for a good reason.”

“I don’t know what reason there could be for keeping my child from me.”

He wrenched his arm away and got back in the car, driving at the speed of light to the address he was provided. She was only an hour away this whole time. For 14 years, Y/N and Gabriella had been an hour away living their lives and he hadn’t known. 

When he approached her house, Luke parked the car and angrily rapped on the door four or five times. “Y/N?!” She called.

“Not Y/N.” Luke spat. 

Gabriella looked awestruck and fearful. “Where is Y/N?”

“She’s at her grandmother’s house. I asked her to stay there so I could come here. What the fuck is wrong with you?”

She stumbled over her words. “I’m sorry. I-I-I…”

“You what?” He bellowed. He’d never heard his voice so loud before. It seemed to rattle the glass shelves nearby. “I have a 14 year old daughter and you didn’t think to tell me! I missed out on 14 years of my daughter’s life! How…how…” God, he felt sick to his stomach. Taking a deep breath, he backed up and started pacing in front of the front door. “Why?” he cried. “Why would you do that to me? To her? She thought I walked out.”

“That’s what I wanted her to think,” Gabriella said softly. 

“Why?!”

“Because for years I was convinced that telling her you had walked out was better. It would keep her safer.”

“Safer how? Gabriella, I don’t understand.”

She knew what she did was wrong. He could see it in her eyes. But she snapped her head up, tears streaming and yelled. “In the course of our one year together, you got shot three times. Stabbed. Beaten and bloodied. You had people come after you. What was I supposed to think except that Y/N hadn’t signed up for that life? To always be under threat? I took on that burden when I met you because I loved you, but she didn’t and I didn’t want to subject her to that. That’s why I left!”

“Where’s a bathroom?” 

She pointed down a hallway and he ran, barely getting there in time to throw up in the toilet. After cleaning up and popping a mint to get the physical bad taste out of his mouth, he returned outside and felt that sourness bite at him once again. “My job was dangerous so you kept my daughter from me.”

“Yes.”

“I would’ve and will do anything to protect her. How could you not trust me?” His voice was no longer elevated, he just felt numb. 

Gabriella shook with uncertainty as she slipped back into the couch. “I was scared. I made a decision to protect her and I couldn’t take it back…”

“No, you couldn’t.”

Nearly 15 minutes passed in silence. “Luke, I…I’m sorry. I know what I did wasn’t right, but it wasn’t to hurt you. I loved you. It was to protect her.”

“I believe you,” he replied. “That doesn’t make it any better.”

“I know.” Gabriella’s voice was barely above a whisper. “I’m sorry.”

“You know I’m not leaving now, right?” He asked. “Now that I know she’s out there, I will get to know my daughter.”

“I wouldn’t expect anything else.”

Luke massaged his temple, feeling a headache coming on. “She’s beautiful. She has your eyes.”

“And your ears,” Gabriella said, smiling for the first time since he walked in the door. “Can you come over sometime this week for dinner? Maybe all three of us can start again on a different foot. That is if our daughter is speaking to me. She must hate me.”

“I’m sure she doesn’t hate you. But expect her to be pissed,” Luke said. “If she calls me I’ll let her know that I’m willing to start the process of forgiving you…so she should too. And I’ll only do dinner if you make the Murgh Malaiwala your mom used to.”

She snickered and felt an overwhelming sense of guilt for what she’d done. “That’s Y/N’s favorite too.”

“I know. She told me.” 

Gabriella took out her phone and texted Y/N. “Should we go pick her up together?”

“I’d like that.”

When they approached the door to her grandmother’s house, Y/N opened the door with a smile on her face to a vision she never thought she’d see - her parents standing together.


End file.
